Health & Wellbeing

NACDEP 2024: Unleashing Potential, Designing & Launching High School Exploration Careers Camps

Meghan Thoreau, OSU Extension Educator

The Healthcare Industry Camp Program was awarded both the 2024 Regional and National Award Winner for Innovation and Creativity and presented on in the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals (NACDEP) at the 2024 Conference held June 17 – June 21, 2024, in Houston, Texas. The conference presentation is accessible below.

Presentation link: www.go.osu.edu/careercamp

NACDEP is an organization dedicated to improving the visibility, coordination, professional status, and resource base of community and economic development Extension programs and professionals.

The national conference presentation highlights a two-day high school summer camp that explored career options in health science. This opportunity was sponsored by Pickaway WORKS in partnership with OSU Extension and Ohio Health Berger. Student- participants experienced professional networking opportunities, shadowed multiple healthcare professionals, and learned first-hand about the in-demand careers in this growing sector. Two healthcare certifications, STOP the Bleed and CPR, were available for students to obtain, as well as, elevated participates to be fast-tracked towards 16+ healthcare internship opportunities and college tuition benefits available after high school graduation.

Pickaway County Summer Health Science Careers Camp

Meghan Thoreau, OSU Extension Educator

This two-day high school summer camp explores career options in health science. This opportunity is sponsored by Pickaway WORKS in partnership with OSU Extension and Ohio Health Berger. Student participants will meet and shadow multiple healthcare professionals and learn first-hand about the in-demand careers in this growing sector. Two healthcare certifications, STOP the Bleed and CPR, will be available for students to obtain, as well as, become fast-tracked towards 16+ healthcare internship opportunities and college tuition benefits available after high school graduation.

Time

  • Day 1: June 8th, 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., (optional CPR Certification, 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.)
  • Day 2: June 9th, 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Camp Location

Ohio Health Berger Hospital, 600 N Pickaway St, Circleville, OH 43113, Berger Classrooms in the basement of the Medical Office Building. Participants should enter the main doors, turn left, and walk past the cafe and gift shop. Take either the stairs or the elevator to the lower level where the healthcare classrooms are located. (Optional CRP Certification at the Circleville Fire Dept 586 North Court Street, Circleville OH 43113.)

Day 1 PRE-REQS *

Day 2

DETAILED AGENDA

**REQUIRED copy/save Google Doc folders in the Resource section below into your account to use and edit.

**REQUIRED to watch the STOP the Bleed Training Video prior to June 8th and complete the quiz at the end. Save and bring your quiz results with you on June 8th. 

Resources

 

Kürzi’s Interactive Media Device Paired with a Hands-on Curriculum Encourages Healthy Decisions Making in our Youth!

Engaging K-12 Teachers with Kürzi’s interactive media device paired with a hands-on curriculum encourages healthy decisions making in our youth! A collaboration project between OSU Extension, Tiny Circuits, Education Projects, and COSI! The Teacher and Student Curriculum Guidebook links are included below.

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About Kürzi

Kürzi is a small STEM/STEAM device with a built-in game that a player, or student, interacts with and may carry around with them during the day. Kürzi is designed to help students learn how to make healthy decisions in relation to diet, physical activity, and mental health through fun gameplay on the device, while they tend to their Kürzi creature.

Kürzi will also help students learn more about healthcare positions through in-game doctor visits for their creatures. During these in-game doctor visits, students will be able to measure their own basic vital signs, like heart rate, using sensors built into the device.

Our curriculum partners, led by nationally known STEM/STEAM curriculum designer Dr. Robert Horton, have designed lesson plans based on the CDC Healthy Schools National Health Education Standards around Kürzi that will fit into your existing 7-8th grade health classes.

Health Content

The Kürzi health lessons are broken down into four sections: 1) Healthy Decision Making, 2) A Healthy Plate, 3) Tracking Physical Activity, and 4) Modd and Mental Health. Each lesson provides learning outcomes for teachers, a brief introduction on the pertaining topics, along with hands-on activities designed both for in the classroom or at home with Kürzi. The lessons provide colorful images, diagrams, and worksheets for students to learn and participate in instruction.

A Kürzi website was created as a resource to support teachers implementing the curriculum in their health classes. The site includes videos, tech support, guidebook links, and other activity resources.

Kürzi Tech and Curriculum Teacher Training Included, October 2021

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Guidebooks (pdf)

Kürzi Teacher Guide

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Teacher QR Code

 

 

 

 

 

Kürzi Student Guide

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Student QR Code

Pickaway County Extension Office is NOW Telecommuting!

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UPDATE – Governor DeWine recently issued a state of emergency and implemented a variety of strategies to reduce the spread of the disease. In order to do our part in reducing risk to our employees or clientele, we have implemented a teleworking plan. OSU Extension offices will be closed to the public until further notice. While our offices will be physically closed, we are committed to continuing to conduct our work as fully as possible.

In recent years, we’ve invested in the technology needed to facilitate effective teleworking. We will utilize all our teleworking capabilities to continue serving our clientele and communities. You should continue to feel free to call, email, etc. with any OSU Extension staff member as you normally would. OSU Extension is deeply committed to the health and well-being of its staff and doing our part to help slow the spread of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). If you have questions, please feel free to contact our office at 740-474-7534 or email me at thoreau.1@osu.edu.

Image source: https://www.industrialpersonnel.co.uk/handle-skype-interview/

Coronavirus is NO JOKE! Limit person-to-person transmission of the virus.

While we know many are taking this seriously, many people are still slow to react.

Please share the below message with your friends, family, colleagues or anyone else who thinks this is not a big deal.

We all know by now the risks to the older populations and persons with compromised immune systems (and many of us have family, friends, and colleagues in these categories); however, what is not getting enough attention is the coming shock to our health system (Links to an external site.).

The best evidence is that the number of cases is doubling every 5-8 days and that 10% of cases require hospitalization, often for weeks at a time. In China 15% of confirmed cases required hospitalization. Italy has higher populations of older people and has roughly 50% of confirmed cases. Simple math shows what lies ahead unless significant steps are taken to reduce transmission.

Assuming on the conservative side, the virus doubles every 7 days, and 100 people in the Columbus area have the virus today, March 11th but are not yet symptomatic (hopefully this is not the case, but we just don’t know for certain).

  • 200 people will have the virus by March 18th
  • 400 people will have the virus by March 25th
  • 800 people will have the virus by April 1st
  • 1,600 people will have the virus by April 8th
  • 3,200 people will have the virus by April 15th
  • 6,400 people will have the virus by April 22nd
  • 12,800 people will have the virus by April 29th
  • 25,600 people will have the virus by May 6th with 2,500 hospitalized
  • 51,200 people will have the virus by May 13th with 5,100 hospitalized
  • 102,400 people will have the virus by May 20th, with 10,240 hospitalized
  • 204,800 people will have the virus by May 27th, with 20,480 hospitalized

And so on. This is in Columbus alone. We cannot manage 10,000 people hospitalized in the Columbus area for weeks on end.

This is not alarmism or a worst-case scenario. This is reality. Even if you assume 5% of cases require hospitalization or that only 10 people in Columbus currently have the virus, you still arrive at numbers that will overwhelm the healthcare system by the end of May.

Unless we ……  Slow…. The…. Virus…. Down….

In Italy, they are currently turning people away from Intensive Care and rationing ventilators based on the likelihood to survive. (Links to an external site.) In China, they have had to build entire hospitals from scratch to house the scores of sick. (Links to an external site.) Health care workers catch the virus and cannot work leading to shortages of doctors and staff (Links to an external site.).

There is an attorney in New York that single-handedly infected over 50 people (Links to an external site.). In Boston, over 70 people were infected by attending a single conference (Links to an external site.).

Please take care to avoid large gatherings and interacting in tight quarters. Please avoid parties and big gatherings. It sucks. It’s no fun. But our actions now will determine how things play out by the end of May.

Useful Interactive ArchGIS Resource: Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)